Calvin Barry is a Toronto-based criminal lawyer with over 16 years experience as a senior crown attorney at Calvin Barry Professional Corporation - Criminal Lawyers. Calvin Barry Lawyer Toronto has practiced in the area of Criminal Law and Regulatory Offenses since October of 2004, accruing over 30 years experience in criminal law.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Former Canadian Olympian Donovan Bailey

TORONTO -- The lawyer for former Canadian Olympic sprinter Donovan Bailey made a brief appearance in court Monday to argue the Crown hasn't provided full disclosure.

Bailey, 44, was charged in March with having a blood-alcohol level of more than 80 milligrams while driving a car in Toronto.

The former world record holder in the 100 metres was not present in court Monday because he's in Edmonton promoting the Donovan Bailey Invitational, a track race featured in the Edmonton International Athletics Festival.

A pre-trial date was to be set Monday, but Harval Bassi, representing Bailey on behalf of Bailey's lawyer Calvin Barry, said the Crown has yet to provide full disclosure.

"We have almost provided compete disclosure," Crown attorney Jennifer Armstrong said. "It remains the Crown's position that sufficient disclosure has been made."

But Bassi insisted the Crown has a duty to provide the information he's seeking and the matter was held over until July 9.

"We're seeking the test history of the breathalyzer that was administered," Bassi said outside court. "That history can be very important.

"If the machine itself isn't in functioning order, then that itself can pose a problem for the Crown's case."

The test history and readings of the breathalyzer may also determine if an expert is required during the pre-trial hearing.

"We will do our best to have that disclosure ready, most of which is not considered relevant by the Crown," Armstrong said.

Friday, January 3, 2014

Oct 16 ’13 - Dean’s standup set is tomorrow and he talked about his preparation methods. Listener Email focused on Mayor Ford and casual greetings. A woman, her brother and a turkey all played a role during Wha Happened? Gerry Dee returned to the show before his show in Kingston with Dean. Packets and pooping were placed in the Edgefiles. Criminal Lawyer, Calvin Barry stopped by and talked about a few cases he has been involved with. www.edge.ca

With all the damning information that has emerged, why have no charges been laid against Mayor Rob Ford?

In these last tumultuous days alone, the imploding mayor has made some startling confessions: he’s smoked crack cocaine, he’s purchased illegal drugs during the last two years and he has indeed driven under the influence of alcohol.

And those are just his self-reported admissions of breaking the law. There are still the many other alleged episodes reported by Ford’s ex-staffers in explosive police interviews made public this week.

In these recently uncensored pages, there are at least two disturbing witness accounts of former staffers being in Ford’s vehicle while he was allegedly driving after consuming alcohol.

In the late spring of 2012, Jennifer Dwyer arrived at the mayor’s home to accompany him to an event. According to the court document, she texted another Ford employee to tell him the mayor was “impaired, driving very fast and that she did not know where she was going. Dwyer was scared in the vehicle.”

Former aide Chris Finkel told police he was a passenger in Ford’s Escalade on the way home from one of his high school football practices in the fall of 2012 when the mayor pulled over, grabbed a mickey of vodka out of an LCBO bag and in the space of two minutes, proceeded to chug it down between gulps of Gatorade. Ford then continued on his merry way.

Fickel was alarmed enough to wisely get out of the car. He said he regrets not reporting the incident.
Chief of Staff Earl Provost told investigators Ford was so intoxicated on the night of March 17, 2012 that he insisted on taking him home in a cab. But when the mayor got there, he got into his SUV and nearly struck the taxi as he speeded away.

The police themselves had Ford under surveillance this summer during Project Brazen — which is an interesting moniker in retrospect — and watched him having a boozy lunch before getting back behind the wheel “under the influence of alcohol and or drug but not to the state of impairment.”
How could they know that if they didn’t bother to pull him over?

“If #RobFord won’t resign, how much evidence is needed to press charges given his drinking & driving, drug use & other criminal acts?” asks Robert Zaichowski on Twitter.
How much indeed?

The mayor has even dared them. “If I did something illegal then arrest me,” Ford said in speaking to a radio interviewer 10 days ago. “Obviously, I haven’t.”

Police Chief Bill Blair will only say that his officers conduct their investigations and then place the evidence they gather before the Crown attorney to decide if charges are laid — which seems rather disingenuous considering police arrest people all the time using their own discretion.

But former Crown Calvin Barry explains that while “a lot of it is embarrassing and humiliating” there really isn’t enough here to make a charge stick against the mayor.

The allegations of drunk driving are simply hearsay, accusations made to police long after the fact. There’s no officer who stopped him, smelled alcohol or asked for a breath test. “You need evidence of impairment,” said Barry, now a defence lawyer. “Within hours, all the evidence evaporates.”

What about the admission of buying illegal drugs? Barry says a vague confession isn’t enough: the person would have to be specific about what kind of drug, when and where it was purchased. Police would have to have it tested to prove that it was really a narcotic and not some other substance. “We don’t have any of that here,” he said.

A current Crown attorney agreed, saying he also hasn’t seen enough to warrant a criminal charge. “There’s a very high threshold,” explained the prosecutor, who didn’t want his name used. “There’s no case here that you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt.”

But this Crown also predicts that may change in the near future.

“There’s some kind of play going on,” he said. “There must be something in the works. I can’t imagine this is the end of the show here.”

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About Me

In his private practice Mr. Barry has defended high profile fraud cases, drug related matters, assault, theft, manslaughter and murder charges.
Mr. Barry has been particularly successful in defending a large number of drinking and driving charges, such as impaired driving, over 80 mg of alcohol in the blood and failure to blow.
Mr. Barry is currently a member of the Criminal Lawyers Association. He is a past director of the board of the Ontario Crown Attorney’s Association (1990-2000), and , in particular, worked as Treasurer of the Association (1994-95) and as a member of the Association’s Finance Committee (1996-97). He has also served as a member of the Toronto Mayor’s Task Force on Drugs (1995-98); a director of the Board of Directors of Variety Village; and a director of the Osgoode Hall Alumni Association.